<p>High school D is running for class officer. Suddenly, the campaign has taken a racial/ethnic tone, which D finds annoying and slightly offensive. Several ethnic candidates have decided to run in a block in an obvious ethnic appeal. Another candidate running for the same position as D, just put up posters saying “Vote for me because I’m ___________.” (Fill in the blank with the name of an ethnic group that is in the minority nationwide but extremely well represented at D’s school.) D dislikes that tactic, and wouldn’t want to try to counter it in kind. Besides, she couldn’t do it even if she wanted to. D is quite certain that submitting for the required school appproval, a poster reading “Vote for me because I’m white” would get her in major hot water. At best, she’d be accused of being racist with all that would entail such as bad college recs. Also, doing so would get her off on the wrong foot with the advisor with whom she’d have to work next year if elected, since school people there are notoriously PC. At worst, D fears she’d get expelled for hate speech.</p>
<p>D is thinking she should probably just ignore the whole race thing. She is also considering trying to use this as a springboard for challenging the thinking that race matters in a school election. I had a blast last night coming up with great comeback posters, but D thought they were too complex for high school consumption. On one I put: Vote D, below that a photo of self-tanning products, then Skin Color: $12.99, Personality: Priceless. S suggested a photo of a saltine cracker, with the caption: “Vote D because she knows it doesn’t matter that she’s white.” D did not like these or the others I came up with. </p>
I agree with your D. Anything that she does that looks like a reaction to the other campaigns will work against her. It is a shame that racial polarization has entered the campaign, but she should not feed into it. Your suggested posters would come off as put-downs of the approach taken by her opposition. You don’t want to do that; she needs to rise above it.
Just one opinion.</p>
<p>“Vote for me because I know that the issues matter more than the color of my skin”? Or any other strongly issue-based posters might work (even if they don’t put down the skin color approach) - I obviously don’t know what, if any, issues are important in the election. However, if a person is choosing between someone of their own race and someone who clearly supports their views as a student, they would [hopefully] choose the latter.</p>
<p>I’d ignore race but not necessarily the tactic. I could see posters that say “Vote for me because I’m the best choice” or “Vote for me because I know the issues.”</p>
<p>IF the race of the opponent is AA, then I could see clever posters that tie in to Barack Obama. Even if the opponent is Hispanic, I think it would be a hoot for her to put up some “Si se puede” posters.</p>
<p>I’m assuming this is all good-natured campaigning.</p>
<p>One problem with school elections is that there really aren’t any true issues, or at least nothing that anyone cares that much about. Isn’t it generally about popularity? Also, the kids have very little power to do anything substantive if elected. They are mostly figureheads. This is why my S never ran when he was in hs and D was never interested before this year either. D did mention 2 issues that she cared about in her speech. Not sure either one would lend themselves well to a poster concept, though.</p>
<p>Edit: that’s not to say the students don’t do any work. They do. They just don’t have a lot of decision-making ability. It seems they execute what the advisor wants done, which is usually what has been done in the past.</p>
<p>Well, humor is always a good tactic. What’s a hot topic on campus?How 'bout “Vote for me because” and then some kind of outrageous claim, like “I’ll ensure three-hour lunches.”</p>
<p>The guy who was elected our senior-class president was the class clown. All the very sincere candidates were shocked he won. You have to play to your audience, and our class wasn’t terribly sincere.</p>
<p>You and our S agree, youdon’tsay. Based on the advice of her big brother, all of D’s posters so far are funny or silly. D thinks the response to them was good and kids seem to like them. So it might not be wise to deviate from the humor tactic to address anything more serious. OTOH, if it becomes a tribal situation where kids think they need to make a selection based on race/ethnicity, D’s at a disadvantage. Our last name puts D in one ethnic group which has almost nil representation in the school, while her appearance puts her in the Caucasian camp and she can’t campaign on that.</p>
<p>Wow. I’m absolutely floored they would allow students to put up such posters. How sad.</p>
<p>I agree with JEM that she should rise above it, and with those posters advocating the use of humor in her campaign. Humor has always worked well at our school, as did the free hot dog barbeque one candidate threw at lunchtime. That was an awfully pricey campaign tactic, though.</p>
<p>I, too, am floored that such posters would be allowed. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>I’m curious as to why D wants to run, if there are no real issues & those elected have no power to do anything. The school sounds as if there are some nasty underlying racial/ethnic tensions, too. Is it really worth it?</p>
<p>D wants to push for better class trips and make sure the prom is affordable. The class trips the last 2 years have been unappealing and thus have had poor attendance. As a result, their class isn’t as tight-knit as others. She might not be able to convince the advisor to allow change, but she’s going to try.</p>
<p>Oh, I don’t think she could get away with it, but I’d love to see a poster that says: “GFGgirl: Making prom affordable so you can afford a real dress” with a pic of the girl who got kicked out of her prom for her scanty “gown.”</p>
<p>She could also make a poster directed at the guys using a picture of one of those tuxedo tee shirts. “GFG girl: making prom affordable so you can afford to rent a real tux.”</p>
<p>I just asked my son (in student govt. for three years) if those posters would have passed muster at his school. He says NO WAY can you use any racial reference. Perhaps your d should quietly complain to the administration about this.</p>
<p>I agree with Youdon’tsay and lspf72. It’s a great poster line. And keep with the humor, kids love humor.</p>
<p>D is a class officer. Her biggest frustration is with the control-freak class advisor. (They have 2 advisors, one is fine, the other is the control-freak). TheGFG you are right on, the kids have to fight to get the advisor to listen to their input. Sometimes they can get her to actually listen to them… in fact, they did get her to look at some less-expensive prom places and they finally found a place that everyone could agree on. But other times she asks their opinion, pretends to listen, then tells them how things are going to be done whether it’s close to they’ve suggested or not. Why bother to go thru the motions?</p>
<p>D also knows that the elections are in large part a popularity contest. She’s a little concerned right now, because there are 8 class officers (4 titled positions, and 4 “class reps”), and only half of them really do any work. It’s unfortunate that the students don’t know which ones do all the work and which ones are always “too busy” to help out (although they weren’t too busy to run for the position and won’t be too busy to put it on their college apps!) The advisors know, but they can’t tell the kids how to vote or offer evaluations of the current officers. D is up for re-election soon, she’s waiting to find out if she’s running unopposed - she certainly hopes so!</p>
<p>Good luck to your d in the election Lafalum84. Boy can I relate to the ins and outs of who is doing all the work. My son and before him my daughter both were heavily involved. Certain students (usually the elected vs. the appointed) never pulled their weight. This year the school president worked with the advisor to institute a point system for all student government participants. They had required community service points, participation points for various school activities and points for doing the work for their own positions. Some students were shocked to get B grades, but it has been effective. The one problem the point system has not solved is the inability of several of the elected students to be able to do their jobs well. My son would like to see a vetting system where student leaders have to have (and keep) a baseline GPA, and be recommended by at least two teachers.</p>
<p>Your D’s picture, wearing sunglasses, “Vote for me because I’m color-blind” or something like, “Color-blind and loving it” And over the sunglasses, superimpose a rainbow where the lenses would be (so she doesn’t look snooty or closed-off with dark sunglasses). The rainbow could be bright ROYGBIV colors or just flesh tones of all the people represented in your school.</p>
<p>or “D’s name, the candidate who includes EVERYONE in her thoughts” or “the candidate who thinks of EVERYONE”…with a thought-cartoon-bubble above her head with photos of students just crowded in there, all kinds of students (use a collage of newspaper or magazine ads, not identifiable h.s. students)</p>
<p>I’m incredulous that the other poster was approved that said, "Vote for me b/c I’m (XXX ethnicity).</p>
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